Marit's Paper World (blog)

Some cleaning and how I make my Chronicles

Hi there lovelies! Are you used to January yet?
The New Year finally has settled in my mind – but I’m still a bit confused about the “3” in the number… it means I will turn 50 this year. Eeeckkk!

I suddenly got the jitters the other day to ‘clean up’ my blog but I guess that’s normal to want to start “clean” when a new year starts. For your information: If you look at the top menu (waaayyy on top) you will see I re-arranged my galleries and also added a new page. I’ll take you through it:

Home = obvious, you all know “Home” don’t you?

About = obvious too, learn more about me there.

Resume = I may have to work on that page. I’m not really sure what to do with it, what info goes/stays in, what goes out… I will think about it some more. For now I leave it as it is.

Blog series = a new page! This page will make it easy for you to find specific series of blogposts. I plan to do more ‘series’ on my blog in the future and if I do, I will add the links there.

Art Journals = galleries showing my various art journals.

Chronicles = special galleries for my Chronicles – I though I’d keep them together so you can find all the former “Chronicles” art journals there.

Other = well… ‘other’, like mono-types, ATCs, mail art and so on.

Besides re-arranging the top menu, I also made similar looking buttons that link to my website and social media pages… you can find them in the side menu. Before it was a bit messy with a little ‘twitter bird’, a facebook badge et cetera.

So far for the household notes – let’s move on to something creative shall we?

I will not write too much text as there are lots of photos to show.
First – the last Chronicle pages from 2012 (click on the photos to enlarge)

The Chronicles of Marit – Week 51 (yep, that’s a monotype)

The Chronicles of Marit – Week 52

The Chronicles of Marit – Last page – 12/31

I always show a photo of myself, taken on the last day of the year,
on the last page of my Chronicles. This year, I included ‘the men.’

Old and New Chronicles

The finished journal from 2012 is on the left, the newly bound
journal for 2013 on the right – ready to start journaling.

The Chronicles of Marit 2013 – First page

On this first page I reflected on my OLW (One Little Word) that I chose for the coming year. My word for 2013 is PERSEVERE (see this post)

I made the first spread for week 1 in my new Chronicles art journal and I thought, since a lot of you asked before, I’d take photos of the process. I know a lot of you want to know how I work on these pages.

My way of working on these spreads changed over the years. I started with working on the spread during the week, adding something every day. Eventually, that didn’t work for me. The spreads looked disjointed when finished. Also, unexpected events could happen during the week and when it did, there was no room left on the pages to write about it or the ‘feel’ of the page was all wrong (for instance, I started with a bright background and then it turned out to be a grumpy week.)

Luckely, I found a routine that works for me. I have a piece of scrap paper laying in the book on which I jott down what happens during the day. Just short notes. At the end of the week (mostly on Sunday) I start with making the spread. I make it in one or sometimes two sessions.

Here’s how I build up my pages.(Click on each photo to enlarge)

… and here’s the finished spread…

The Chronicles of Marit 2013 – Week 01

I hope you enjoyed this insight in how I make my pages.
Are YOU keeping a daily/weekly art journal?

You are awesome, Marit ! And you share so much. It is greatly appreciated and admired !
I have gotten out of the art journal routine. There are days when I miss it but I am in a flow with my new rocks and my stitching and stuff right now. I think I will definitely come back to it. Maybe in a simpler, shorter format.
I am glad that your new year is off to an okay start. Cleaning and leaving room for the new is always a good thing.
Sending big hugs across the ocean to you, Soul Sister !

That’s a wonderful insight on how you create your chronicles, Marit! Beautiful first week! love those pics of you, Marius and Nout!
Great make-over on your blog and I love those journals, especially the binding!
Sure “Keep On Rocking”

I’m 50 this year too – I’ve decided to tackle a Project Life type album (and adding OLW as part of it) to “honor” the year. We’ll see how that goes! I love your work and it is interesting to see what your process is!

MY ART WORK

My artwork can be found in galleries on my website.

Unless otherwise stated, all photos, images, thoughts and stories on the website as well as on this blog are my own (Marit Barentsen aka Marit's Paper World.) If you see something you want to share, please link back to my site to give credit where credit is due. If you have questions about using my work, please contact me. Thank you!